Doug Burgum Warns: AI Arms Race and Energy War with China Are Existential Battles for America’s Future
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream to deliver a stark and strategic message: the United States must decouple from China in critical mineral supply chains, reassert its energy dominance, and win the rapidly escalating arms race in artificial intelligence.
The discussion, which spanned energy policy, trade tensions, and national security, offered a clear-eyed assessment of what Burgum described as an existential challenge from the Chinese Communist Party.
Mining and Minerals: Ending Dependence on Beijing
Bream opened the segment by highlighting a glaring contradiction: while the U.S. possesses rich deposits of rare earth minerals, much of the material mined domestically is still shipped to China for processing.
“There is both the material and then the processing, and this began, back, you go back to Obama, Biden administration. We basically been at war with mining in this country,” Burgum said.
He singled out copper as a critical resource not only for consumer electronics but also for national defense. Burgum emphasized that reversing the U.S. regulatory war on mining is essential to reclaiming independence from foreign supply chains.
Trump’s Trade Strategy: America Holds the Leverage
Pressed on how the U.S. should respond to China’s increasingly aggressive trade posture, Burgum expressed strong support for former President Donald Trump’s negotiation credentials.
“I have a lot of confidence in President Trump to be able to negotiate deals. We’ve got one of the best negotiators — the only President we’ve ever had who literally wrote a book on negotiating,” Burgum said.
He noted that China’s economic model is far more vulnerable than it appears. The country imports 11.5 million barrels of oil per day and a quarter of its daily food calories. In contrast, the United States is both an energy and food superpower, giving it significant geopolitical leverage.
Energy Independence and the AI Battlefield
Shannon Bream also raised the link between energy production and America’s future in AI innovation — a race that Burgum warned cannot be lost.
“One of the things you guys are working on too is this issue of AI… it’s not just the technology… but it’s the energy production,” Bream said.
Burgum explained that while renewables are weather-dependent, coal offers uninterrupted power crucial for high-demand computing systems.
“Thermal coal produces electricity. Metallurgical coal includes the metals that we need for steel making… Coal is persistent. It’s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” he said.
AI: The Defining National Security Challenge
Burgum closed with a sobering warning: America may lead in software and innovation, but China is gaining ground in energy production — and that could determine the victor in the AI arms race.
“This AI arms race, which is the existential threat. We cannot lose to China in an AI arms race. We are leading in tech, but they are leading in the electricity,” he cautioned.
Burgum’s comments reflect a broader strategic vision taking shape within the Trump-aligned leadership: energy security, supply chain resilience, and AI supremacy are not just economic goals — they are matters of survival in the 21st-century geopolitical landscape.